22 DRY-FLY FISHING 



resist the water, and send it forth endowed with 

 greatly increased capacity to compete with the 

 living insects for the attention and acceptance of the 

 eager trout. No longer will it be ignored, but at 

 every subsequent shower of March Browns it will 

 deceive a fish or two, and the basket will begin to 

 grow agreeably heavy. 



The only really wonderful fact about the dry-fly 

 is that it was not invented first. Instead of being a 

 development of the wet-fly, it should have been its 

 precursor. Why did these old anglers, who have 

 assisted so much by their study of the food of trout 

 and by their laborious search for materials where- 

 with to copy the various species of flies, attend only 

 to certain details, highly essential no doubt, and 

 ignore the most important characteristic ? Of 

 course, in these far-off days trout were numerous 

 and unsophisticated, and anglers were few, so that 

 little thought was demanded ; but even that fact 

 does not excuse or explain the omission. 



Some may respond that it is easy to be wise after 

 the event. They should, however, note that the 

 use of a floating fly was advocated at least seventy 

 years ago, and that the idea has occurred to many 

 anglers who had previously never read a single 

 word about it or seen anyone using it. It is cer- 

 tainly surprising that the art of dry-fly fishing has 

 taken so long to become well-known. 



As long as trout are accustomed to see flies, living 

 or dead, sailing on the surface of the water, and are 

 willing to take them, so long must the angler take 

 heed that his artificials behave in exactly the same 

 way. Wherever trout have reached a degree of 

 wariness sufficient to make them suspicious of a 



